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I stood in front of my mirror dabbing on my completely unnecessary, way over-priced MAC foundation then mulled over the price in my head, determined I deserved it before moving on to another thought. It didn’t take long for me to start humming then, because I am somewhat hyper, I started conversing with myself. The conversation went something like this…

“Okay, so I have… mmmm… twenty minutes before we have to be at church.” I opened mouth wide and spread gooey resin over my lashes.

“Crap. I haven’t spent time with God yet…ah, I’ll do it tomorrow.” The reflection was more than happy to confirm the idea as good.

“Yeah, tomorrow works. You need to check Facebook.”

“Right!” Once I had all the makeup smeared on I checked my ever-present companion, Mr. cell-phone. Good, good. ten minutes remained. That was just enough time to answer my messages!

“Kay.” I snatched my Bible off the ground and made my way towards the door, glancing back to stare at the ginger wood desk. It was the desk I would have spent my time with God on. Oh well, He is gracious. One time away can’t hurt… can it?

Readers, because I love and care about you, I will be honest. What I just did there… it can hurt you, a lot. Think of it this way, when we don’t take

Please humour me and think of it this way: when we don’t take time to talk to God and instead rush out the door like frantic carrier pigeons not only are we are left to our own way of doing things we are also dishonouring Him.

I really, super-duper, don’t want to get all preachy on you but because I love you and I am going to keep speaking the truth, in love.

We know that God loves us. Right? We see and hear those words all time. Whether found on bumper stickers, seen on the Fort Macleod sign or heard from the mega-church pastor on Instagram we experience the words and idea a lot. There’s nothing wrong with this. AT ALL. It’s an amazing thing to know we are loved by God and considered incredibly valuable to Him. It’s a great thing to know about and savour God’s grace.

However…

We sometimes forget that our relationship with the Lord is not a one meal deal. There’s a reason why we call it a relationship. That’s because it requires two people to make it work. How would you feel about spending time with someone who never loved you back? I don’t know about you but I have created boundaries around those kinds of people in my life because they are exhausting.

God requires us to not only accept the crazy, nutso, makes no sense love for us. He always wants us to love Him. That’s why His first commandment is “love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength” Just like us, but in a way that does not come from need, He desires to be loved. He wants to be looked upon as beautiful. He wants to be cherished by you, dear reader.

When we spend time with God we are honouring Him by following His commands. This is something we ought to be doing all the time but so often, I don’t know about you, but I fail at it.

I understand that It’s not always easy to do this, to give God the best part of our day and take time away from other things we love. It can be tough give him time before the internet or our cell phones but he is worthy. We fall into this cushy, everything- is-covered-by grace thing where we ignore God’s commands and allow ourselves to slip into mundanity.

Not only is there absolutely no life in that place, it is also not a good way to worship God. I challenge you to take a special piece of your day, either today or tomorrow and commit yourself to sitting with God. Tell him how appreciative you are of certain things in your life. Put on a song that is worshipping him and sing along. Make up your own words as you go. Tell him how good he is. Take time to do a painting or a drawing that is done in honour of him. Your piece of art doesn’t need to be done for anyone else. It’s a gift to God from the creative heart he has given you.

When you work at your job, do it for the Lord. Tell him that you dedicate that time to him then do the absolute best you can do. There’s so much joy that is found in this! With practice and constant asking for His strength and grace, anything and everything you do will one day be done for Him in this manner. You will not be concerned with pleasing people because everything you do is not done for you or for anyone else around you. It will be done Him and Him alone and His peace, that perfect peace will wash evenly and throughout through your parched soul. Your anxiety will be calmed and you will rest when you put Him first. The enemy will be given no foothold in your life when God overwhelms it.